Chapter 60 Warren
WARREN
Being back on campus was weird as fuck. Warren was staying at Harland’s place – at Harland’s very firm insistence – and commuting to school.
His cock, as Harland had promised, was locked away in a high-quality chastity cage that was driving him batshit crazy.
Warren had attempted to mount a counterattack in the form of denying Harland access to blowjobs and cuddles, but he was weak and had given in to temptation on the first night. Watching Harland’s smug face staring down at him as he sucked his cock was infuriating.
Since Harland was determined to keep his cock locked up until they were back in Alaska, Warren focused on school. He spent the first day at the library from morning to close, Josh studying across from him, and then the next two days taking his exams.
Harland had his assistant, Sandra, drive him back and forth so that he wouldn’t have to drive when he was tired.
Before he knew it, his exams were over and he was off from school until Christmas. He walked out of the economics department where he’d had his last exam and met Josh at the bottom of the stairs.
For once, Josh had dressed properly, wearing both mittens, a proper winter coat, and a woolen hat. He lit up at the sight of Warren coming toward him, holding out a cup of coffee that had Warren rushing his steps.
“We’re free!” Josh said, handing him the cup.
“Thank god,” Warren said, taking a sip and falling into step next to him as they headed to lunch. “I was prepared, but I hate taking tests.”
Josh bumped his shoulder. “Now you can focus on your supernatural harem.”
“Shut up,” Warren said, the joke now stale enough that it didn’t make him blush any more. “It’s not a harem.”
“Whatever you say,” Josh teased.
They made their way into the café where they were eating lunch. It was the same place where Max had joined them for lunch a while back. It felt like a lifetime ago, but it wasn’t actually that long ago.
Warren couldn’t believe how quickly he had gone from casual vampire blood donor to mated to three alphas. It was insane and more than a little intimidating when he let himself think about it.
Still, being with Max, Marcus and Harland felt right in a way that nothing else in his life ever had. It was like a piece of himself finally slotting into place.
“How are things with the vampire?” Josh asked after they’d ordered and settled down at a quiet corner in the back. “Are you enjoying having him all to yourself, or do you miss the other two?”
“I miss them,” he said. “Harland is nice, but he’s a little intense. Without Max to act as a buffer, it can be a little…”
Warren didn’t know how to describe it.
“Intense?” Josh teased him.
“Yeah,” Warren said. “He’s very dominant.”
Josh didn’t like that. His eyes narrowed, and Warren could tell he was trying to play it cool as he asked, “In what way?”
Warren rolled his eyes. “Not in a bad way. I like him a lot. He’s just very used to everyone doing what he wants.” When Josh kept looking skeptical, Warren added, “Don’t worry, I can hold my own against him.”
“You worry me,” Josh said.
“You don’t have to worry. We’ve had a few times where I wanted to stop, and he’s very respectful of my limits.”
Josh wrinkled his nose. “You’re like my brother, dude. I don’t want to know about your limits.” Then he corrected himself. “Though if he violates your boundaries, leave him. Them. Whatever. Don’t stay with them if they don’t treat you right.”
“I won’t,” Warren promised, even though he had no way of honoring that if he turned out to be an omega.
He hadn’t experienced the hunger that Dylan talked about yet. He was horny – he hadn’t been this worked up since he was a teenager – but he wasn’t feeling that empty, bad kind of horny that Dylan had described.
This felt normal and manageable.
Marcus had sent down the first batch of pills made from his and Max’s sperm, and Warren had them ready to go for the first sign of something feeling off.
“How about you?” Warren asked. “Still going home for Christmas?”
“That’s the plan. My aunt is driving to New York, so she’s picking me up and letting me hitch a ride.”
“Nice,” Warren said.
“How about your sister? Is she coming here?” Josh asked.
Warren shook his head. “No, she made up with her roommates and Harland is paying for them to go to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico.”
Vivian had been ecstatic when Harland had called her to offer the trip as an early Christmas present.
He’d waited until Vivian had finalized her plans to spend Christmas with her friends, and then made the offer.
The reason he’d waited was so that Warren wouldn’t think that he was trying to keep her away during the holiday season.
He and Marcus had made it very clear that Vivian was welcome to join them in Alaska whenever she wanted.
“Am I going to be getting any of this sugar-baby spillover?” Josh asked, grinning.
“I mean, if you want,” Warren said. He actually meant it. Josh was his best friend. He would do anything for him.
“No, don’t make it weird,” Josh said. He wiped his hands on his napkin and put it on his empty plate. “I’m good. As long as you’re happy and not getting chopped up for vampire parts, I don’t need anything.”
Warren huffed out a laugh. “What even are vampire parts?”
“I don’t know!” Josh exclaimed. “No one knows, that’s why vampires are so scary. They just… lurk.”
Warren took a sip of his Diet Coke and nodded. Harland was a pretty decent lurker. Twice now he’d woken up in the middle of the night to find Harland watching him.
He decided not to share that fact with Josh. He wouldn’t understand that Warren actually found it kind of nice to wake up and see Harland staring at him.
Warren didn’t understand it himself.
“Okay, I should probably get going,” Josh said, standing up and putting on his coat. “I need to pack and get ready for the drive.”
Warren rose with him, walking with him to the edge of campus and giving him a hug before he got in his Uber.
“Text me updates,” Josh said, squeezing him.
“I will,” Warren promised.
He watched Josh get into the car and drive away. Taking out his phone, he was about to text Sandra that he was ready to be picked up when it occurred to him that he probably wouldn’t find a better time than this to do his Christmas shopping.
The campus was close to the main shopping street and he was bound to find something nice for all three of his alphas.
Warren had picked out a nice pair of battery-heated leather gloves for Harland when he felt someone watching him. He glanced around, half expecting to see a towering leather-clad vampire wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet lurking nearby.
There was no Harland in sight, and yet the feeling of being watched persisted.
Paying for the gloves and getting them wrapped, Warren zipped up his coat and exited the store.
The sensation of eyes on him did not go away as he made his way down the sidewalk, nor when he slipped into a random electronics store and out a side entrance into a café that was also confusingly a bank.
Starting to get freaked out and wondering if he was imagining things, Warren took his phone out and was about to call Harland when he abruptly decided not to.
It was the middle of the day and Harland was sleeping.
He had his phone with him – he’d said to call if Warren needed anything and that he would wake up – but Warren didn’t want to bother him if he was just being paranoid.
There were bound to be some consequences to getting kidnapped and assaulted by a deranged military general. It would make sense if Warren was a little paranoid. If anything, he should have been far more traumatized than he felt.
Taking a deep breath, Warren stepped back toward the wall of the café slash bank and looked up at the menu. A little to his right there was a desk with a woman offering banking services.
What even was this place?
“Can I help you?” the bank woman called out to him, a friendly smile on her face. She had a cute, plump face and a huge amount of artfully arranged curly red hair.
Warren shook his head. “No, I’m good. I’m just trying to decide if I want anything to drink.”
The woman smiled wider. “That’s all right. If you need any help with your credit card or checking account, let me know and I’d be happy to assist.”
Warren nodded and looked back up at the board.
“You’re pretty interesting,” the woman said. Warren turned back to her, startled, his pulse jumping when he saw her face.
Something was wrong. The skin on her face looked oddly tight – different than it had just a second ago – and there was a beady wetness to her eyes that made something in Warren’s hindbrain recoil.
He backed up, but in a fraction of a second, the woman was standing next to him and holding his arm.
He couldn’t breathe. He wanted to run, but his legs refused to obey him.
“Let’s have a chat.”
Warren allowed himself to be led to a small corner by the window and guided into a chair. The woman slid her hand up his arm and patted his shoulder, and when it lifted, it was as though, all of a sudden, he could breathe again.
“Don’t look so nervous,” the not-woman said.
“If I was going to eat you, I would have done it already.” She tilted her head, the movement at just the wrong angle, making Warren want to throw up.
She smiled. “You are getting nice and full, though. Eating and getting fat. Good job. Most of your kind starve and wither without ever knowing what they are.”
What the fuck. Warren glanced at the exit, but no matter how much he wanted to jump out of his seat and bolt out the door, he couldn’t bring himself to move.
“I was very sleepy when I noticed you,” the not-woman said. “Fleeing my territory, your little vampire and his werewolves all in a flutter up in the sky. If I had been more awake, I might have said hello to you then.”
Warren swallowed. The thing inside the woman had to be the creature that made Florida off-limits.